Community Based Adult Education: An Exploration of the Use of Open Learning Systems in a Greek Community in West Germany and the Development of an Adult Education Centre in Southern Greece.

The objective of the thesis as a whole is to analyse the present state of Adult Education in Greece with particular reference to the county of Tripolis, and, from that analysis, to identify the possibilitites of introducing into it open learning practices in the light of relevant experiences in other countries. With this objective in mind the Greek Educational System is described and two Case Studies undertaken, the one dealing with the use of Open Learning Systems in a community based project, and the other exploring alternatives for the development of an Adult Education Centre. The function of Open Learning Systems from several countries is analysed with the aim of showing how such systems are already working successfully on a wide scale. The first case study draws on experiences gathered from different countries and uses them as a starting point for the particular case of the Greek community in West Germany. The development of the Adult Education Centre in Southern Greece was based on a different set of criteria, since the study involved not only developing an existing institution vis a vis its educational needs, but also in finding ways of changing attitudes and convincing bureaucracies of the validity of such proposed changes. A substantial amount of documentary evidence including questionnaires, work-sheets, posters and interviews, are presented as they form an intrinsic and indeed vital part of the thesis. As a result of the case studies several concrete proposals for future models for Adult Education and its development emerge and their implications are examined and assessed